There are a variety of sports and games where the players foot is used to kick or to catch and toss a small ball, shuttlecock, or footbag. Other objects such as rocks, golf balls, ping pong balls and any other relatively small object can be utilized. The most popular form of this type of sport or game is "Footbag".There are footbag tournaments, footbag magazines and various other activites associated with the sport. It can be played by one person alone or in groups or teams, in circles or across nets.
A footbag is a small, pliable, ball-like object with little or no bounce. Cover materials may vary considerably, but most are filled with light-weight, plastic pellets or with sand. Cover designs range from seamless one-piece to internally hand stitched, multi-panel patterns. Although footbag dimensions vary according to their intended use, they are generally about 2" in diameter and weigh just over an ounce. Although the concept of using the feet to keep an object aloft, as a game, can be traced as far back as 2500 BC in Mainland China, it wasn't until 1972, in Portland, Oreg. that footbag, as it is known today, really began its growth. Footbag can also be played using a "koosh ball", which is made of many pieces of elastic rubber strips protruding approximately 1" from a central rubber ball.
Footbag freestyle is normally played co-operatively with the players forming a circle to involve everyone equally and, although a player may use any part of the body to "stall" the footbag, it is mainly played by using the feet, and by so doing, perform various tricks before passing it on. The footbag may not come in contact with the forearm (from the elbow to the fingertips) while it is in play. The hands may only be used to retrieve and to serve the footbag. The footbag is also often played by kicking it rather than stalling and tossing it.
Players have, until now, used an assortment of regular shoes, athletic shoes, sandals or even their bare feet to play footbag. As footbag is mostly a foot-eye coordination game, the player had to locate the contact points, or target areas on the foot-wear or feet, in order to make contact with the footbag. As these surfaces are undefined as to their precise visual and physical location, they are difficult to locate and, because of their irregular surface area, it is difficult to control the direction of the footbag, thus making the game difficult to play, especially for the novice.
The choice of foot-wear most individual freestyle championship entrants use, is the "Adidas-Rod Laver" tennis shoe, which, even though it has a wide tongue surface area, still has certain disadvantages, namely that the stitching on the eye-tabs has to be cut with a blade in order to expose and enlarge the tongue area, in order that it may function as a catching and stalling surface. Because of the smooth surface of the shoe there is a limit to the number of tricks that can be performed, also, because the contact points or target areas are undefined, it is difficult for players to locate these points when the footbag is in play. Another disadvantage is that the lace bows are unsecured and they tend to flop around during play and can be disruptive to the player and even cause the footbag to be deflected.